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Covering The UK Launch of the Nokia 5800

[Heavily updated] Pop into the Nokia store in Central London today and you'll find the Nokia 5800 has launched. Rafe got himself up at silly o'clock to get to Oxford Street in time for the opening, and he's been updating us over Twitter and uploading pictures as he goes. With close to 100 people queueing, the consensus is that the 5800 (the first touch based S60 phone, running 5th edition) is one of the most highly anticipated devices from Finland in the last few years. Read on for Rafe's thoughts and pictures throughout the morning, including unboxing the 5800 retail...

The weather is typically British (that means it's raining), and umbrellas are all out and at the ready. People have been queueing since one o'clock in the morning, eager to pick up the first UK retail version of the Nokia 5800.

The staff are doing their best to keep the crowd in good spirits. Alongside demos of the 5800, they are handing out hand warming pouches - small plastic bags that generate just enough heat to stave of hypothermia. Branded, of course.

By 8am the queue has got even longer, probably around 150 people or so. The weather seems to be following the trend - it's getting worse.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of familiar faces from the UK Tech scene in the store (yes, it's open now) and the emphasis on the new device inside the store is clear, and creating a wonderful atmosphere. Just to clear up any lingering doubts, the handset (unlocked) costs £249.99.

A quick heads up to Vero Pepperrell, who reckons Rafe "looks like a wet puppy." Awww. And while she wouldn't queue up for a new phone from Nokia (or Apple!) the fact that people are looking to get this device, and there is a buzz around it (with Palm Solo on Twitter checking the price), Nokia are starting to get a machine that has real world buzz around it, which is going to be vital in the smartphone world. Okay it's not the all encompassing adoration of the Mac Fans, but it's a healthy start.

There's more queueing inside the store. But no one's complaining now they're not getting rained on. Plenty of UK media and bloggers around, though none of them seemed to have been queueing - wastrels!

There are plenty of demo units for those who want to try before they buy... and then there's the groovy branded dance floor (unfortaunetely all the dancers had gone by the time this photo was taken).

And to the till... where the mood lighting lulls you into handing over £249 for Nokia's latest offering. They were also offering 50% of a whole range of accessories including cases, Bluetooth headsets and speakers.

Here's the contents of the 5800 box. With a headset, case, spare stylus, plectrum, TV-Out cable, connectivity cable, charger and associated manuals the 5800 has a generous accessory bundle, underlining its value for money status.

This is what people have been waiting to buy. In addition to the 5800 there's various extra goodies including a Music Store voucher, a promise of music festival tickets, a WH-700 headset and the bag itself is a limited edition.

There's also extra content and applications on the phone, we'll add some screenshots and information about these in due course.